Hopedale - Dual Valley conference girls basketball players like tall, athletic Cheryl Daudelin are far and few between.
She's been playing her final season of basketball for Hopedale, her fourth year as a starter on coach Paul Usher's Blue Raiders. She was a Dual Valley All-Star as a sophomore and junior, an honor she'll undoubtedly earn a third time.
She's closing in on a big milestone - 1000 career points. With 920 now and averaging 20 per game, she should make it in another four or five games, barring injury. She has never missed a game in four years.
A six-foot center, she's averaged over 16 points per game in her career. She also leads the team in rebounding, around 15 per game, and blocks enough shots (a half dozen or more a game) to have earned the nickname "Manute."
"She's a worker, and a leader," says Usher. "As a freshman we put her in the lineup and let her get experience, but she was already blocking shots and scoring a little. Sophomore year she was in great shape from cross country, had more confidence and could outrun anyone on the team."
"Last year as a junior she was a co-captain, and scored 22 a game. This year she's the sole captain on the team, is stronger and has added to her repertoire of moves offensively."
"She's really good with her teammates. To them, she's just Cheryl."
A parent looks at her accomplishments and starts to think, "How do I get my kid to grow up like this?"
Class president all four years. Ranked sixth in her class. National Honor Society. Star athlete, not only in basketball but in softball also, as an All-Star first baseman.
But ask her about these things, and she's, well, just Cheryl. No ego problems here.
Class president. "It's a small school," she laughs. "Hardly anyone ever runs."
Honor roll. "I do OK academically," she offers, having to think for a moment when asked what her class rank is.
Star athlete. But ask her about basketball, and she talks about the team, not herself. She doesn't mention 1,000 points. Daudelin says this year, her goal is for the team to make the Districts.
"We've missed it by one game the last two years," she notes. "We were 10-7 both years. This year we're really strong (5-1 so far) and we've got a very good chance."
"We've got a really young team," she says. "I'm the only senior. But the younger players are so good. Three sophomores, Julie Vignone, Tricia Reed, and Tricia Hill, and two freshmen, Crissy Derderian and Andrea Reichart, all play a lot and they're all good. The younger players we're getting now are really serious about the game, and they're good athletes too."
One regret she has is the friend she never knew as a teammate. Daudelin grew up with Colleen Fitzgerald. They had played basketball together in the backyard for years. Fitzgerald, two years older, was a Daily News All-Star two years in tennis and one in basketball by the time she was a sophomore, helping the basketball team make the Districts for the first time in the school's history. She would have been a junior when Daudelin joined the team as a freshman.
But that summer, Fitzgerald's family moved to Rhode Island. Fitzgerald went on to star for St. George's in Newport, and is now at Hamilton College in New York.
"We were best friends," Daudelin says. "We would have been something together. She was always my role model. I idolized her, just the way she played and did other things."
Daudelin started playing competitive basketball in the fifth grade, and continued through junior high. "I was always the tallest kid in my class," she says.
After her freshman year, she made the Central Mass Cougars Jr. Olympic hoop team in the spring, getting a chance to match moves against very good competition. Last year she played in the Bay State games for the Central team, where the PC coaching staff saw her.
"Those two experiences really helped her development," says Usher. "It was like doubling or tripling the amount of experience, because the competition was so good."
It was in the Bay State games that Providence College coach Bob Foley spotted her. He wasn't the only one. Bentley College, Stonehill, Assumption, and St. Anselm's (New Hampshire) all wanted her. St. A's wanted to get her to sign an early commitment letter, something it never had done for any player before.
But PC won the battle, offering a full scholarship. "I wanted the challenge of playing Division I ball," says Daudelin, "and they offered the most academically."
PC's program under Foley is flourishing, off to a 10-2 start this year. Daudelin has gone to see several games this season, the most recent a one-point loss at the buzzer to Georgetown.
"The big difference playing there will be the speed of the game," she says. "It's so much faster, and PC is a running and pressing team. There will be a lot of players as big as me, too." Daudelin expects to be a forward for the Big East school.
"Besides her competitiveness and work ethic, the thing Cheryl has going for her is that ability to run the court," said Usher. "And she can already hit the medium range shot a college forward needs."
Academically, she plans to follow a general program of study at first, and is thinking about sports medicine as an area of special study.
She's the last Daudelin to go through Hopedale, following her older sisters and a brother, Donna, June, and Kevin. All were active in school sports and activities. Her father Ed Daudelin was an outstanding football player at Brookline in his own playing days.
It's not always easy, or fun, of course. In between studies and sports, she also works at the Milford Town Library. Hopedale has had a winning record every year she's been there, but there were some low moments.
"The blowouts, they're the worst," she says. "When I was a sophomore we were undefeated and Bromfield was undefeated. We played them and they killed us. That was bad."
